St Richard’s Canal Festival
Norbury Canal Festival TBC
Rickmansworth Festival
Moira Canal Festival
Newbury Waterways Festival
Cosgrove Canal Festival & Craft Fair
Shardlow Inland Port Festival
Black Country Boating Festival (TBC)
Tipton Canal & Community Festival
On this page you will find links to useful information to our members new and old. Starting out as a Roving Canal Trader can be a stressful thing, so we hope you find the following information helpful.
Things you can do to get yourself out there!
GET YOURSELF LISTED ON THE RCTA WEBSITE TRADERS DIRECTORY – You use the email you gave us when you joined to log in to access the members area of the RCTA website HERE. If you don’t know your password, click on Forgot Password and you will be sent a new one. Once logged in, you can add your business details to the RCTA ‘Traders Directory’ including photos, contact details and discount you offer. If you have any challenges with this, please email our volunteers on canaltraders@outlook.com and we will help you as needed.
JOIN THE RCTA MEMBERS ONLY FACEBOOK GROUP – This group is where our members and volunteers discuss ideas, ask questions, and advice of other members away from the public forums. We exchange hints and tips and get advise from each other on the day to day problems that we all encounter. The Steering Group also post updates here, and relevant information for members. Click on the link and ask to join: Members Only Facebook Group.
FOLLOW @canaltraders ON TWITTER & INSTAGRAM – Follow us and see all the news and posts from the RCTA Facebook Page and other traders on the cut and all things canal related. Plus, when you tweet, we, and other members will re-tweet you. Use our ‘hashtags’ – #buyitoffaboat; #canaltraders to increase your reach.
JOIN #BUYITOFFABOAT SHOP – our online shopfront for members only to sell, but open to everyone to buy. Put a price, a picture and description and let new customers get to know you. Click HERE to join.
If you would like more information about the shop and the #tag click HERE.
Let folk know when you are in their area!
COUNTY SPECIFIC FACEBOOK PAGES
A lot of traders use Facebook as a free way of advertising their products and services. Finding the right audience is especially difficult, especially if you travel around the network a lot. To help you to advertise your whereabouts out to the right audience, RCTA have created County Facebook Pages for you to post your whereabouts on.
RCTA ADMINISTERED FACEBOOK GROUP
OTHER FACEBOOK GROUPS AND PAGES (Not linked with RCTA)
Canal Traders News: https://www.facebook.com/canaltraders/
Trading Opportunities on the Cut (for registered CRT traders):www.facebook.com/groups/tradingopportunitiesonthecut
Floating Traders: www.facebook.com/groups/1094209830611901
Canal Marketplace: www.facebook.com/groups/CanalMarketPlace
Narrowboat Traders Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1906626009593642/
Get yourself booked in at Events!
If you click on the RCTA Markets, Festivals & Events Page you will find a comprehensive list that is kept as up to date as possible by our volunteers and can be a good resource for you to find events to trade at. We also organise markets where our members get priority booking! RCTA Floating Markets are organised to give our members trading opportunities, to raise the profile and public awareness of roving canal traders, and of the canals as a whole. Market dates and locations are published on our website as soon as confirmed, and all members are involved in deciding which areas will have Floating Markets the year prior to the arrangements being made. Members will be informed when these can be booked.
You can also take a look at Canal & River Trust’s Events page HERE
or Inland Waterways Association Events Page HERE
If you need help, contact RCTA and ask for a New Traders Liaison
RCTA are happy to help any new traders and if you find yourself stuck or in need of assistance, just email canaltraders@outlook.com with details of your problem and someone will be there to support you.
Familiarise yourself with the rules on Trading from Winter & Visitor moorings
Following a meeting with the Roving Canal Traders Association (RCTA) and CRT, trading on visitor moorings on weekends and on Bank Holiday weekends was discussed. The RCTA raised that they were concerned that if adhering the 48 hour/2 day visitor mooring rule it would mean that authorised trading craft would not be able to trade fully on weekends/Bank Holidays.
With this in mind we have agreed that on weekends/Bank Holiday only authorised traders on a visitor mooring will be allowed to :-
At weekends
Friday – Arrive at Visitor Mooring
Saturday – Trade
Sunday – Trade
Monday am – Leave the Visitor Mooring
At Bank Holiday weekends
Friday – Arrive at Visitor Mooring
Saturday – Trade
Sunday – Trade
Monday – Trade
Tuesday am – Leave the Visitor Mooring
On the Easter Bank Holiday weekend trade boats may arrive on Thursday and leave on Tuesday.
The Trust will ensure that our enforcement team and boating coordinators are aware of this agreement to ensure that trade boats do not receive extended stay charges on bank holidays.
Winter moorings
It has been agreed that in line with Planning Regulations also referred to as the ‘28 day rule’, we will allow compliant authorised business licence holders who secure a winter mooring to :
1. trade for 28 consecutive days
2. trade for 28 individual days over the period of the secured mooring.
For example : If a winter mooring is secured for one month only, an authorised trader could trade from that mooring for 28 consecutive days, after which no further trading would be allowed to take place. If a winter mooring is secured for four months, within that four month period an authorised trade could trade for 28 individual days or a block of 28 days.
To enable us to monitor the situation and ensure that all traders are adhering to the 28 day rule we will ask for a declaration to be made by each trader that they will adhere to the planning regulations for trading. Click HERE to see the CRT page this appears on.
